Nikolay Britavskiy (National Observatory of Athens) -- Identification of red supergiants in the Local Group with mid-IR photometry (Second Half)

Star forming dwarf irregular (dIrr) galaxies serve as ideal laboratories for investigating the evolution and mass loss phenomenon of red supergiants (RSGs) within the context of different metallicities of host galaxies. Also, RSGs may be used for abundance determinations in dIrrs. The extremely low number of spectroscopically confirmed RSGs in external galaxies makes the identification of new RSGs statistically significant. We present a systematic survey of RSGs and luminous blue variables (LBVs) with the goal to complete the census of these objects in the Local Group. Using the fact that RSGs and LBVs are bright in mid-infrared colors due to dust, we propose and apply a technique that allows us to select dusty massive stars based on their [3.6] and [4.5] Spitzer photometry (Britavskiy et al. 2014). We present the results of our spectroscopic follow-up of luminous infrared sources in 7 nearby dIrrs (Phoenix, Pegasus, Sextans A, Sextans B, WLM, IC 10 and IC 1613) based on VLT/FORS2 and GTC/OSIRIS observations. In total we have observed ∼100 targets, among which we have so far identified 16 RSGs and 2 new emission line objects in these galaxies. Moreover, using the newly discovered RSGs, we have revised the mid-IR and optical photometric selection criteria for this type of objects, which can be applied to other galaxies of the Local Group and beyond.